Net Worth: 2017-08-01

Here we are at our third Net Worth review. I just calculated our Zero Days for the month and we had 10 zero days, which means we did not spend any money on over 32% of the days. I believe we can get this to over 50%, but it will take some effort. As I previously mentioned, we purchase very little and this exercise is more about helping our planning than a reduction in spending. The great thing is that by better planning we WILL decrease our spending in areas of which we have the most control.

We had a better month with our assets, but our liabilities also increased. There is a perfectly reasonable explanation described below. Our total Net Worth is up 15% from the previous month, which seems good, but you have to know the whole story to know the truth. Let’s dive into the numbers and then an explanation behind each.

NET WORTH: 2017-08-01

ASSETS

AMOUNT

% CHANGE

Cash Savings

$10,024.41

-11.1%

Cash Back

$519.93

15.5%

Brokerage

$32,111.68

3.4%

Retirement

$417,544.41

1.5%

MOST 529

$2,572.31

9.1%

House

$317,249.00

15.2%

Cars & Boat

$48,355.00

-2.5%

TOTAL ASSETS

$828,376.74

6.0%

LIABILITIES

AMOUNT

% CHANGE

Credit Cards

$9,860.31

-5.8%

Car Loan

$24,900.00

-2.4%

HELOC

$35,700.00

18.2%

Mortgage

$200,028.70

-0.6%

Student Loans

$221,249.56

-0.1%

TOTAL LIABILITIES

$491,738.57

0.6%

TOTAL NET WORTH

$336,638.17

15.0%

Here is additional information about each of the categories shown in the table above.

Cash SavingsOur total cash and savings accounts are down $1,247.27 since last month. We made our quarterly payment for school for Baby SoS and my Dependent Care FSA started being withdrawn from my account. This means my income was lower, but I have yet to use the money to offset the expense. When I began my new career I chose to max out my Dependent Care FSA at $5,000 for the year. This lowers my weekly take-home pay, but also lowers my tax liability by $5,000, which is a good thing. Dr. SoS’s had her best practice month, yet, so within the next few months we should have this combination of accounts back up to $15,000 or more.

Cash Back
This amount is up $69.77 since last month. We cashed out one of our rebates, but as we pay our bills we continue to increase this amount.

Brokerage
My stock is headed back up to where I purchased it increasing this account by $1,066.00 since last month. I did not make any trades, but I will probably make some next month so we should see even more of an increase.

RetirementI cleared $2,990.64 after commissions and fees last month with my trading. Due to a slight increase in the stock prices we are up $6,082.78 total from the previous month.

MOST 529
This account is doing what any good savings for the future account should do and that is go up, up, up. We are up $214.18 from our $150 monthly deposit and the increase in the market value of the fund.

House
Remember last month how my home value dropped from $317,834 down to $275,421? Well, this month it is back up to $317,249. I have no idea how these home estimate sites figure out what homes are worth. We live on a lake so homes that are on the lake are worth about $100,000 more than homes that are not on the lake. We pay extra for the spectacular sunrises and easy access to fishing and boating. The issue is that when a home near mine that is not on the lake sells for $225,000 my home value, by their calculation, goes down, and when something strange like what happened recently when a home on two lots sells for $500,000 my home value goes up. This is all funny money anyway. It is just an estimate to help calculate our total net worth and should be taken with a grain of salt until we sell the home and move on with our dreams.

Cars & Boat
The values of these diminishing value assets decreased by $1,228 since last month. Our cheapest car went up in value and everything else went down. Since I only pay $600 per month on my car loan, this further proves how horrible vehicles are as assets. My advice, pay cash for a car and drive it until it dies.

Credit Cards
We did such a good job paying these down in June, but are only down $602.88 from the previous month. We should make more headway soon as we spend less and pay off more.

Car Loan
I made my monthly payment automatically and we are now down to only 41.5 remaining payments.

HELOC (Home Equity Line Of Credit)
If you were paying attention you see that this account increased by $5,500 since last month. We chose to loan some money to Dr. SoS’s business to buy equipment. Sure, she could take out a business loan, but we already have enough accounts to track and I know she is good for the money.

Mortgage
We are so close to having our loan under $200k with the balance now at $200,028.70.

Student Loans
Our progress is still very slow with our student loans. Dr. SoS told me this month that she plans to put the profit of her business toward them to help pay them off. Now we just need more profit in her business!

As of the first day of August, we are up to $336,638.17 from July’s total of $292,683.62. Again this seems pretty significant until you realize that $41,828 of that is from the home value fluctuation in our favor. Removing that from the equation results in us actually being up $2,126.55 from last month. What we also have to take into consideration is the fact that we personally loaned $5,500 to Dr. SoS’s business. Add that back in and we are up $7,626.55 from the previous month. This is due to the increase in the value of our brokerage and retirement accounts. Saving money pays future dividends that you will not earn if you do not begin saving for your future today.

If you have any questions about any of this, please let us know. Until next time we will keep saving and swimming! Thanks for reading!